Gillingham Town hope patient wait for action will end on weekend

GILLINGHAM Town's long-term plans for progress may be on track but manager Adrian Foster is currently more concerned about ending a six-week spell without a game.

The Toolstation Western League Premier Division side have seen home clashes postponed because of work on broken pipes below their Hardings Lane pitch.

Last Saturday's fixture at Winterbourne United fell victim to a waterlogged pitch, meaning the weekend encounter with Bitton could be their first outing since mid-November.

Planning permission for a new ground on land near their current home has been granted, with Foster saying the club are doing their utmost to earn at least Evo Stik Southern League football.

However, his current focus in restarting Gillingham's bid to scale the heights of the Western League's top flight.

Foster said: "Our former secretary Roger Monksummers has done a lot of work behind the scenes. It does take work with the councils and planning processes and it has now all been signed.

"The club is striving to push forward. They want to go as high as they can and the new ground is part of that. It's up to me to bring the club up to standard on the pitch.

"Everything is moving forward and if you look at the last five years we have come a long way from a mid-table Dorset County League side to the Western League Premier Division. It will be a few more years to progress a league or so higher but it will come."

On his team's current plight for action, Foster added: "We have trained this week on the rec but it was full of water and mud. I said to the lads we didn't want to come out and train in this weather but you have got to do something. If the lads don't train they are only letting themselves down."